Good post, Oracle. We are like minded.
I am fairly certain that the departure goes beyond one single event.
First and foremost, this individual, as I have cited many times over the years, was a "fund-raiser". From his early days with Kang and Chitayat at Bain Capital, he has had an uncanny ability to arrange pools of capital through pipes, which over the years, have stripped away both assets and owner's equity from the Company under the guise of raising funds. I am not going to elaborate, but if you start with the company Indigo and Eric Brachfeld and their history, you will see the types of people which were associated with these pipes (some convicted criminals) and how they made money by shorting the Company through their elaborate pools of "investors".
From day one, Steipp refused to discuss anything about Kang with shareholders once he became CEO. When asked at a shareholders meeting what job Salas (who had to step down as CEO of LQMT) had as executive vp, Steipp simply replied he had to manage CIP. Yet Salas himself, had no experience in patents per se, but rather just as a funding deal maker (i.e. Medical Manager and a slew of pipes).
By never discussing what were the ongoing relationships with Kang and Salas that Steipp had, he totally aroused suspicion from late 2010 and onward about just what was his role as CEO of LQMT.
All of this is coming to roost.
I don't see how Steipp comes out clean in this because there has been a very elaborate cover-up involved. Too many strange bedfellows.
This is an assessment based upon 13 years of DD (call it Due Diligence, Digging Deeper or Doo Doo.....that's up to each reader).
I see other players going by the wayside pretty soon, starting with the Chairman of the Board who is and has been a key lynch pin between the Chitayat Salas Kang long term binding over LQMT.
A lot of house cleaning has to be done beyond this one individual.
More money has been made by the "demising" of Liquidmetal's capital than from the development of Liquidmetal into a revenue making company.
There is no point in agreeing with you, since we would then both be wrong.
